LONDON —
Former prime minister Boris Johnson returned to Britain Saturday from a
Caribbean holiday aiming to launch an audacious political comeback, as
Conservative rival Rishi Sunak reached the minimum threshold to contest the
UK’s top job.
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Johnson cut short
a luxury stay in the Dominican Republic to join the seemingly three-person race
to replace outgoing leader
Liz Truss, with allies telling British media he was
“up for it”.
The divisive
58-year-old Brexit architect only relinquished power in early September, two
months after announcing his resignation following a Tory revolt over a slew of
scandals.
His apparent bid
to return to office just weeks later has already been decried by opposition
politicians, and even some in his own fractured ruling party who are demanding
stability and unity.
“It is simply not
right to risk repeating the chaos (and) confusion of the last year,” said David
Frost, a right-wing formerly loyal minister appointed to the House of Lords by
Johnson.
“We must move
on,” he urged the Tories, adding they “must get behind a capable leader who can
deliver a Conservative program” who he identified as ex-finance minister Sunak.
Frost’s comments
echo
Dominic Raab — Johnson’s deputy prime minister — who told Sky News an
imminent parliamentary inquiry into the “Partygate” scandal that dogged his
former boss could prove too distracting.
Late Friday,
Sunak’s allies in parliament revealed he had garnered the nominations of 100
Conservative MPs, the threshold set by the party to stand.
However, both
Sunak and Johnson are yet to announce they are running, with reports that a
declaration by the former was imminent.
‘Hogwash’
The Tories were forced into a second, this time expedited, leadership
contest since the summer after Truss dramatically announced Thursday she would
stand down — just 44 tempestuous days into her tenure.
It followed a
disastrous tax-slashing minibudget that sparked economic and political turmoil
which Sunak had predicted.
In a sign of the
toll from the tumult, ratings agency Moody’s said Friday it had downgraded
Britain’s outlook, blaming in part “heightened unpredictability in policy
making”.
Meanwhile, the
pound — which hit a record low against the dollar in the minibudget’s immediate
aftermath, but had since rallied — slumped.
Cabinet member
Penny Mordaunt, who just missed out on making the final runoff after Johnson
quit, was the first to formally unveil her candidacy, on Friday.
The 49-year-old
said she was running for “a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the
national interest” but is already trailing her rivals by dozens of nominations.
The accelerated
contest will see the Conservatives’ 357 MPs hold a vote Monday on any
candidates with the 100 nominations, before a possible online ballot of party
members later in the week if two remain.
The Sunak and
Johnson camps are reportedly seeking talks to see if there is scope for a unity
deal — although there is plenty of bad blood since the former prime minister’s
defenestration.
Sunak’s July
resignation helped trigger the government mutiny that ultimately led to
Johnson’s ousting.
Tory MP James
Duddridge, a key Johnson ally who confirmed Friday the ex-leader was intent on
standing, said Saturday that he had now secured the support of 100 colleagues.
But the claim was
met with skepticism by other Conservatives, with one MP telling the BBC it was
“hogwash”.
‘BBB’
Johnson has nonetheless been endorsed by several Tory heavyweights,
including on Saturday ex-interior minister Priti Patel.
Meanwhile,
posting a photo of Johnson on the phone to his Facebook, backbench Conservative
MP Lee Anderson revealed he was backing him after “a long chat about everything
past and present”.
“My inbox is full
of BBB (bring back Boris),” he said, referring to an acronym and hashtag used
by his supporters.
But in a sign of
the party’s deep divisions, others such as Johnson’s ex-chief of staff Steve
Barclay warned against turning to him.
Former leader
William Hague, Sunak’s mentor, told Times Radio his return as prime minister
would lead to a “death spiral” for the Tories.
Veteran
backbencher Roger Gale warned that Johnson could face a wave of resignations
from MPs refusing to serve under him again.
Although he
remains popular with party members who could decide the contest, polling shows
he is broadly disliked by the electorate, with a YouGov survey finding 52
percent opposed his comeback.
Another poll also
found three in five voters now want an early general election, in line with
demands from opposition parties, as Britons struggle with a worsening
cost-of-living crisis.
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